friday the guys played golf and the girls all went to get our nails did. my mom came with us and got a pedicure for the very first time, it was so cute as she giggled because the lady was tickling her feet. my friend julie came too and it was really nice to have her hang out with all of us. she's the cutest pregnant woman you'll ever see and all the ladies getting their nails done thought she was adorable.

after our nails, i had to stop by our rehearsal dinner spot to drop off the bridal party gifts and julie came with me while the other girls finished up their nails and picked up some lunch to bring back to my house. back at the house, we still had 139 puff balls to puff, oh, and 1 day before the wedding i still hadn't done the seating chart :)

julie headed back to the hotel and i went back to my house, to be greeted by all the girls ready to help puff the tissue puff balls. it was so funny. they convinced me to get my a$$ in gear and finish the place setting while they puffed away :)

(all photos from my NEW camera that my amazing brother got for us for our wedding gift!)

aren't they cute? (the girls!)

i am more than obsessed with these things and wish i could use them to decorate everything. i am seriously considering getting a few more to hang in my office at work!

then they buried me :)

so as they worked on these beauties, i was upstairs a few seconds away from a nervous breakdown. ADVICE TO ALL BRIDES - DO NOT SAVE THE SEATING PLAN TO 1-HOUR BEFORE YOUR REHEARSAL, 1-DAY BEFORE YOUR WEDDING. it was nuts. i had the guy at our venue waiting for the table #s/# of chairs until the very last minute! luckily he's very laid back so wasn't rushing at all.

i used little post-it sized paper and we printed my excel list and cut out all the names. i put the paper in the diagram of our reception dining room and got to work. the hardest thing was my parents put their people together and pat's parents put their people together... but neither list matched up with the other so i just had to make some last minute executive decisions and change some of their requests around. in the end it all worked out perfectly, but it was SO stressful at the time.

so once this was said and done, it was time for the rehearsal! we headed down to the church and met up with everyone. it was so much fun to see everyone together for the first time and our priest walked us through the process for the next day and then we practiced. thankfully, pat's sister-in-law jeannie agreed to be the person who would tell everyone when to go during the actual ceremony, which was SO helpful.

after the church we had a good amount of time to kill, so we walked over to the local pub for a quick drink before heading to the rehearsal dinner. we filled the place to the brim! it's a little irish bar and was a perfect spot to drop by.

the rehearsal dinner was great. so much fun. we got to give our gifts (pat ended up getting his guys monogrammed highball/whiskey glasses and best men got a flask too) and everyone really enjoyed themselves. pat kicked off the meal with a speech that i didnt even know he had lined up. it was so sweet - calling out my parents, his parents, me, my bridesmaids and his groomsmen. the best part was "and to my groomsmen, who as hard as i tried, i still can't think of a single thing you've done to help in the wedding, but thanks for coming anyways." everyone had a good laugh.

THEN - my cousin surprised me with something amazing, something everyone had been working on without me knowing - A SLIDESHOW!!!! i was SO excited. it was such an amazing surprise and meant so much to me.

i wish the pic wasn't so blurry! i gave all the girls their vera bradley totes which they LOVED, and my maid of honor received her longchamp bag :)

me and my 2 cousins and my brother

after the rehearsal dinner (which went to 10:30 i might add! i guess people really were having fun!) we headed over to a local bar which sits right on the water, down near our town docks. some of our other guests were already there so we met up with them. i stayed for a beer then headed back home with my brother, excited to get a good night's sleep :)

it was such a fun start to the weekend and while i couldn't wait for the next day, i also wanted to keep each moment as slowly as i could so it wouldn't go too fast!

12 comments:

looks like fun! I am SO glad my husband and I had made a pre-lim seating chart under the assumption that 150 people would be there. Then when we received the RSVPs we could cut people/tables out as needed =) You look so pretty and put together at your rehearsal! I was a HOT MESS running around trying to get things together and then I was exhausted lol

I love the picture of you with the puff balls!! And can you believe its been three weeks since we've gotten married. Gosh, time sure is flying!! And I love how they surprised you with a slideshow. Such a cute idea!!

Yay for recaps! Your puff balls turned out awesome. I only made 6 bigs ones and one or two (one in particular) looked a little wonkly once I fluffed it. I think maybe I didn't place the wire exactly in the middle. Oh well! LOL.

The puff ball burial pic of you is so cute! And seating charts are stressful! You want everyone to be happy and comfy at the reception and the numbers never quite add up! You look so pretty in your rehearsal dress. Love it with the nude shoes.

that picture of you in the puff balls is great! and that's so cool that you were able to wear your mom's dress for the rehearsal. my mom's dress was TINY (I wear a size 12 wedding dress, hers was like...a 7?) so there was really no good way for me to alter and wear it without totally changing it.